Jack’s Friends

Political Wirewrites that tomorrow might be an interesting day in Congress, corruption-wise. It seems that some things have been going on around Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) which may not be entirely copacetic.

There’s a potentially big story brewing on Capitol Hill… Apparently 104 members of Congress of both parties — 42 Republicans and 62 Democrats — secured earmarks for a lobbying firm linked to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) in a single bill. The earmarks were inserted in a bill Murtha controlled as the defense appropriations subcommittee chairman.

It looks like business as usual, of course, until we learn that the company’s executives and clients seem to be big, big political donors to Rep. Murtha.

7 Responses to Jack’s Friends

$1,815,138 / (42 + 62) = $17,453.25Let me get this straight, these 104 Congress-critters took an average $17 grand in political donations with Murtha apparently getting a bigger portion.After blowing $780 billion + interest last week, this looks pretty anemic.I remember a story about a judge in Philadelphia who took a payoff to make an attempted murder case involving some “muscle” for Roofers Union 30-30 go away. He got $30,000 which seemed like a poultry sum considering the crime. I’m always amazed that the payoffs are so small .. given the risk involved.

I’m always amazed that the payoffs are so small .. given the risk involved.

What risk? Is somebody going to force him to serve on Obama’s cabinet?

This is the way most embezzlers work. Any individual payoff seems small, but they add up. Think of it like Madoff. You could take a few of his individual deals and make it look like peanuts, but between the few big scores (think “Stimulus Bill” here) and the scores of small investors (all the other bills), he made out like a bandit (think 95% re-election rate).

But… but… but… Obama was supposed to CHANGE how things work in Washington! I mean, after he was elected, we were told repeatedly that American politics would be DIFFERENT! That he would inspire all of us to do better! To BE better!

Murtha must have done all this before Jan. 20, so it’s all Bush’s fault.

/ sarc

What’s disgusting is that there were 42 Republicans who were cozy with that piece of filth and saw nothing wrong with getting their own palms greased. This is one of the things that makes it so damned hard to convince people that Republicans ought to be in control in DC.

John Q. Public [in the voting booth] – “Hmmm… I can vote for the democrat, who is a corrupt, spineless, bloviating moron. Or, I can vote for the Republican… who is also a corrupt, spineless moron. But the democrat says he’s gonna give me stuff. The Republican just says that he’ll cut my taxes a little bit. Decisions, decisions… Well, guess I’ll go with the corrupt, spinless, bloviating moron who promises to give me stuff. ‘d’ it is!”

Need it be said that the 42 who were in bed with al-Murtha should be punished? At the very least, they should be drummed out of Congress. If there is plausible evidence that they committed actual crimes, they should be punished to the fullest letter of the law.

As for al-Murtha and his fellow democrat (spit) trash… They got off scott-free, of course. The law doesn’t apply to democrat trash.

<blockquote><a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021302746.html”>Marvin Hoffman is listed</a> in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.
“It’s alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere,” Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. “I’ve never heard of this company.”</blockquote>

This obviously would be illegal for PMA Group to do, but what isn’t know yet, is whether any of the targets of PMA Group knew this was going on.

Marvin Hoffman is listed in campaign finance records as one of the many lobbyists with the powerful PMA Group donating money to lawmakers. But Hoffman is a soon-to-retire information technology manager in Marina del Rey, Calif., who has never heard of the Arlington lobbying firm or the Indiana congressman to whom he supposedly gave $2,000.
“It’s alarming that someone is stealing my identity somewhere,” Hoffman, 75, said in an interview. “I’ve never heard of this company.”

This obviously would be illegal for PMA Group to do, but what isn’t know yet, is whether any of the targets of PMA Group knew this was going on.